Due: In Class – TBA

Weighting: 25%

Students will be allocated to study groups in the first session. Each group will select an influential psychologist to study and discuss in class. Each group will have up to 45 minutes to lead a class discussion. At least 15 minutes should be devoted to a question and answer period which will be conducted by the group.

Visual aids may be used to a maximum of 10 slides per group presentation.

Students will be assessed on their individual performance – content and presentation.

Each group will select an influential psychologist from the following;

Alfred Adler – Individual psychology

Aaron Beck – Cognitive psychotherapy

Eric Berne – Transactional analysis

Albert Ellis – Rational-emotive therapy

Erik Erikson – Developmental theory

Viktor Frankl – Logotherapy

Erich Fromm – Humanistic psychoanalysis

William Glasser – Reality therapy

Karen Horney – Psychosocial theory

Carl Jung – Analytical psychology

George Kelly – Personal constructs

Lawrence Kohlberg – Moral developmental theory

Arnold Lazarus – Multi-Modal behaviour therapy

Kurt Lewin – Field theory

Frederick Perls – Gestalt therapy

Carl Rogers – Person-centred therapy

Harry Stack Sullivan – Interpersonal therapy

Joseph Wolpe – Behaviour therapy

Questions to be answered in the presentation (and group report) are:

1. Why did you select this psychologist?
2. Which theoretical perspective does this psychologist endorse?
3. How have the ideas of this psychologist been applied in the community?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this psychologist’s perspective?
5. What can managers learn from this psychologist?

This is a written summary of each group’s presentation after taking into consideration issues and/or criticism raised in the class discussion.

Length: 2000 words maximum

Format: Double-spaced, name of group members, and number of words in report.

To be submitted electronically at iLearn (Turnitin Plagiarism Submission)

 No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of total marks for the report for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late. This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for disruption of studies is made and approved.

TOPIC: Select ONE essay topic from the following:

1. Does the persistence of hierarchy in work organisations arise from the fundamental necessities of social organisation, or in response to fundamental human motives?

OR

2. Many psychologists, and especially Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysts, have argued that managerial behaviour cannot be adequately explained by reference to a theory of the ‘rational individual’. Assuming this to be true, how should senior managers be trained to deal with problems generated by managerial relationships?

 OR

3. Evaluate H. J. Eysenck’s arguments for the relationship between personality and cancer.

  OR

4. If the ‘behaviorism’ promoted by B. F. Skinner teaches that, because of environmental conditioning no one is to blame for misbehaviour, how does one develop a sense of personal responsibility?

OR

5. Critically discuss George Herbert Mead’s notions of ‘I’ and ‘Me’ and their implications for the practice of management.

OR

6. ‘The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason’ (G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1909, p.32). Critically discuss this quotation with reference to the work of Thomas Szasz.

NOTE:  The purpose of the theoretical essay is to provide students with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their argumentative skills. The essay is not intended to be a descriptive account of course material or regurgitation thereof. It is intended to be an exercise in argumentation which demonstrates students’ grasp of the relevant material and their ability to argue for and/or against specific aspects of it. The essay will be assessed against five equally-weighted criteria:

-     Expression: spelling, punctuation, syntax; -     Description:  clarity, continuity, substance; -     Argument:  clarity, validity -     Relevance:  to topic; -     Research: use of appropriate material.

Length:  2000 words maximum (excluding bibliography).

Format: Double-spaced, name of student, and number of words in essay.

To be submitted electronically at iLearn (Turnitin Plagiarism Submission).

 No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of total essay mark for each 24-hour period or part thereof that the essay is late. This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for disruption of studies is made and approved.